As I eat through each day, I can’t reach the end without some kind of avoid passing my lips. I do try for avoid-free days, but something always comes along.

Yesterday, hubby was marinating steaks for dinner. The marinade was compliant. I suggested sautéed greens (olive oil and garlic) for the vegetable. It sounded like a nice mix of beneficial and neutral foods. As we were going through the grocery store, he picked up a small container of pine nuts. I felt a little dismay, but kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to cause tension by piping up “I can’t eat pine nuts”. I can’t expect him to care much about my food lists. So, I ate a few. No harm done. In fact, by not causing tension between us, I may have kept both our cortisol levels low. Funny, though, the only taste in my mouth this morning is of pine nut essence. A reminder that I once again I didn’t make 100% compliance.

On another note, the Capitol City Marathon is being run today. They changed the course this year so they run right past our house. I am amazed at the number of middle-aged and older folks zooming by. We are just past mile 14, and when I went out to watch for awhile, I only heard one person huffing and puffing. It makes me feel a bit wistful about not being more athletic. All I do is walk or bike on my home equipment. I play a little golf, and go to the Pilates studio three times a week. But then I have to remind myself that running a marathon is really for O’s. I do the type of exercises recommended in LY4YT for B’s. I'm OK.

I had an early wake-up today. It’s the beginning of the golf season and there was a Chamber of Commerce tournament I was invited to play in. It was an 8:00 am shotgun start. That meant getting up at 6:00. That’s the middle of the night for me any more. I generally snooze around until 8:30 or 9:00 these days. I get plenty of B sleep, that’s for sure. The weather was good. It got a lot warmer than the weather forecasters had predicted and by 10 o’clock I had ripped off all the layers I could and still be decent, and was still too hot. The tournament was themed for Cinqo de Mayo. Hole sponsors were pouring beers first thing …..ugh! I don’t get how some folks can drink and play golf. I, for one, can’t get my body and mind to coordinate after a drink. And believe me, I have tried! But, drinking beer at 8:00 am has no appeal, even though it is a neutral beverage. We were the only all female team in the tournament. We didn’t have the length that guys did, so we scored relatively poorly. But, it was fun. I hit the ball well, for me. And at this point, I don’t have any shoulder and arm pain. It feels used, but no pain.

This relates to yesterday. I had an acupuncture/physical therapy session. The acupuncturist uses needles to relax the areas that the PT wants to manipulate (she uses osteopathic manipulations). Then she gets right in and puts the bones and ligaments where she wants them.

I have to go backwards in time here. I had an MRI on my neck in January. The diagnosis was degenerative disc disease between c5-c6 and c6-c7 with spurring and stenosis, constricting nerves going down my left shoulder and arm. Anyway, this Dr. dude said he wanted to do an anterior double discectomy and fusion. Well, that’s way too scary for me, so I didn’t make a follow-up appointment. My PT is trying to get me a second opinion with a surgeon in Seattle, but it’s taking awhile to get a response. So, meanwhile, she and the acupuncturist are experimenting with trying to stretch out the nerve and relieving the pressure from the spurs. It seemed to work yesterday. I hope the golf didn’t ruin the results.

So, I may have to make a decision someday whether I can continue playing golf or not. It certainly has been frustrating for the last five years not being able to play as much as I would like. I have just so many swings in me before things get uncomfortable. Therefore, I have slowly gotten worse at the game. I can either practice or play. I usually choose to play. Practice is boring.

Easter just crept up on me. Yes, I’ve been seeing baskets and bunnies and chocolate eggs in the stores for weeks now….but it just didn’t dawn on me until today. And the marvelous realization I came to was that seeing those things didn’t make me crave my old Easter favorites. I used to be mad for malted milk robin’s eggs and jelly beans. I couldn’t keep my hands off of them if they were around. This year I haven’t given them a thought. I had to actually think to remember what it was I wasn’t supposed to be eating that I loved. Hurray! Now I have to hope daughter and hubby don’t bring any home…..the thought has been planted.

Healthwise, I have been suffering a bit from a bronchial inflammation. I’m afraid I let it go on a bit too long before seeing someone. It actually started in January with a slight virus that turned into a bad cough. It would subside some, but every time I would get on an airplane, it would come back with a vengeance. I have flown once a month this winter. It finally got to hubby, and he insisted I see someone. He was thinking a respiratory specialist…..but I went to my naturopath. She loaded me up with lobelia and enzymes and instructions for castor oil packs. Wouldn’t you know, I came down with a head cold the very next day. Not very conducive for lung healing. Saw the acupuncturist the next day. He was having trouble getting through the head cold energies to hit the chronic bronchial stuff. But he did okay. By Friday my energy was good. I’m trying to think the cough is getting better. I bought a humidifier today to help keep the lungs moist at night. He emphasized keeping the lungs moist.

My first thoughts on this prolonged ‘illness’ is ‘why did this happen to me when I follow the BTD?’ I lasted many years on the diet without being sickly until now. Is it because I’m older? Do I need to tweak my compliance? I surely am not 100%. My grain portions are a little over the recommended. There are maybe three avoids that I have chosen to consume. I think coffee is the only thing I drink regularly that I shouldn’t. Wheat sneaks in occasionally, but is definitely a once in awhile thing. And on the rare occasion that an oyster will present itself, I’m all over it.

Anyway, I will not beat myself up about this. I’ll take my medicines, drink lemon water and do what I can to keep my lungs moist. Our chorus is going to regional competition next weekend. I’ve got to be able to sing!

I took a long weekend plane trip with my daughter to just north of Los Angeles to check out a school that she is interested in. I won’t mention the city, since I don’t want to offend anyone who might live there. But, it was a culinary wasteland.

We stayed at a mid-priced chain motel where a buffet breakfast was served each morning. If I had been strict BTD, I would have only eaten the scrambled eggs and whole fruits (apples, bananas, and oranges) that were there. And it would have been quite enough and satisfying. But….they had the "dreaded" bacon next to the eggs every day. I couldn’t resist.

We couldn’t find any restaurants in town that weren’t part of a national chain. There was Applebee’s and Chili’s and Marie Callendar, to name a few. Lots of pizza places. One chain restaurant is the same as another to me. It seems they all serve the same kind of foods. I was able to find at least one compliant entrée on each menu. I know they were full of hidden avoids. And, being with my daughter, who is not BTD, I couldn’t be too picky about food. (I’m a wimp). And I did eat some wheat.

For lunch one day we found a Jamba Juice. They had one berry smoothie that was 'dairy based' instead of soy. I was happy for that.

Each morning I woke up with a swollen face. Ugh! Evidence of dry motel air and avoid foods. And I am three pounds heavier today than I was last Thursday morning. That will take me until Friday to shake off.

It will be a long week.

But, the trip served its purpose. Daughter decided against this school and is closer to some real decision making in her life. The weekend wasn’t totally lost.

It was time for me to get my thyroid prescription rewritten, so I had my naturopath write an order for all the fun fasting lab tests. You know, lipids, glucose, and tests for things that indicate gall bladder, liver and kidney functions.

I’ll compare these with the last tests that were done almost two years ago.

Now .... Two years ago

Glucose - 91 .... Glucose - 96

Total cholesterol - 205 .... Total cholesterol – 192

HDL - 61 .... HDL – 60

LDL - 98 .... LDL – 119

Triglycerides – 233 .... Triglycerides – 59

My heart risk ratio went from 3.1 to 3.4. Things aren’t dangerous, but a little worse. I was most disturbed by the sudden elevation in triglycerides. Somehow I’m letting more carbohydrates into my diet. Obviously there is some denial here, so I have to look hard at what I’m doing. I also know that my aerobic exercise isn’t what it should be. I keep up with the strength and flexibility part with regular Pilates and yoga. But I have to admit that if I get on the treadmill or take a walk more than once a week, I’ve been doing well. So, I just have to put it on my calendar as something that gets done. I walked or treadmilled each day this weekend. A good start. I think I will start adding in a garlic supplement. I will do more investigating and self-examination. I’ll take anyone’s suggestions, too!

The cholesterol crept up over that magic 200 mark. We had adjusted my Red Yeast Rice dosage two years ago when the total had dropped. I had been taking four tablets a day, and we changed it to three. Mr. No-Brainer says I go back to four.

I didn’t find any of my former organ functioning test results, so it must have been quite awhile since they were done. But from this test, my BUN was a little high, along with sodium. She thought that maybe I am a little dehydrated. That’s real possible. I try to drink two liters of water every day. Sometimes I miss it, though. If I know I won’t be convenient to a toilet all day, I adjust my morning water intake, and rarely remember to make it up.

Everything else looked good. My practitioner was quite happy with the results. Considering what things looked like six years ago before I started BTD, I am the picture of health! Thank you once again Dr. D’Adamo. You have no doubt saved me from the early heart disease and diabetes that run in my family.

Now……about those pesky triglycerides……..